VIC TOEWS VENOM – Media on the Attack

I’ve enjoyed some of the media vitriol directed at newly appointed Court of Queens Bench Judge Vic Toews.

The latest attack came in the way of an article published in the Winnipeg Free Press called, “A closed mind on the bench?”

The story was written by Mary Agnew Welch and highlights eleven (11) cases where Federal Court Judges accused Toews of, “sidestepping evidence, failing to offer detailed decisions and displaying close-minded intransigence,” when dealing with the Charter rights of Canadian citizens incarcerated abroad.

These were no ordinary Canadians citizens by the way.

These were high level drug dealers doing time in foreign prisons who were looking to exercise their, “Charter right,” to serve part of their sentence in Canada. As the report indicates, the cases typically involved major drug traffickers like Yves LeBon, a Montreal resident convicted in 2008 after Police in Illinois seized one-hundred-nineteen (119) kilos of cocaine in his vehicle.

Welch reports that in many of the cases at issue, “Toews relied on suspicion, often contradicted by evidence, the offender was linked to organized crime as a reason to deny the right of return.”

Not long after he was convicted, LeBon applied to serve the balance of his ten (10) year sentence in a Canadian prison.

Toews rejected the request much to the ire of the Federal Court who ordered him to reconsider. Toews stood fast and rejected the request once more citing concerns LeBon was likely to commit an organized crime offence if he returned to Canada.

While I’m no champion for Vic Toews, I hesitate to criticize the man for trying to protect the Canadian public from high level drug traffickers who deal death and despair on the streets of every urban center in our Country.

After all, wasn’t that his sworn duty as Canadian Public Safety Minister?

Whatever happened to common sense in this Country?

Whatever happened to the idea that you must respect the law when you enter a foreign Country or suffer the consequences?

Whatever happened to the concept of crime and punishment?

I have absolutely no sympathy for anyone who tries to make a profit by participating in a criminal enterprise that destroys lives and contributes to the victimization of so many people in our society.

It’s to bad the Federal Court doesn’t see it that way.

I’m sorry, do the crime, do the time, and serve it wherever you get caught.

It’s not like these offenders didn’t know the risk.

I find it funny that so many sit in judgement of Vic Toews when he has yet to make one decision in his role as Court of Queen’s Bench Judge. Yet they somehow feel justified to put him in a box and suggest it is he who has a, “closed mind.” Seems like a contradiction of sorts.

I truly have no idea what kind of Judge Vic Toews will make. I hope he’ll approach every case with an open mind and presume the innocence of every offender until such time as they’re proven guilty.

Once convicted, that’s a different story.

It’s my hope Toews will depart from the soft justice approach that’s become so prevalent on the bench and flip the scales so that victim’s rights are put on the forefront once again.

Bang on here James. Until you pointed it out I missed the “Takes one to know one” component in these ‘closed mind’ allllegations. It went over my head because I got locked in on the the pitful line of reasoning used. Ms. Welsh wants us to believe the appointment was a bad one because several Federal Court judges said he was a bad man for skirting the charter to keep drug dealers in foreign jails longer. WELL, couple of things wrong with that: First of all, in a parliamentary democracy, the people own and fund the criminal justice system. In the pecking order, their duly elected Public Safety Minister comes first and their un-elected, un-accountable stale old “Boomer” judges come – not first. Second and most important, when it comes to winning hearts and minds, outside the realm of law and political science, can the utterances of Federal Court judges, bent on repatriating drug dealers and letting them go, really sway anyones’ thoughts on the appointment of a guy found guilty of trying to do otherwise. That’s why I didn’t notice the obvious and I’m glad you did, because you are so right!